


Of Letters and Love

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Echoes: A Peacemaker Kurogane/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover [7]
Category: Peacemaker Kurogane
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Author Loves Writing the Meiji Revolution, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-04-11
Packaged: 2017-12-28 06:31:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer is here again for the inhabitants of Kyoto, and that means matsuri!  A surprise visit from an old acquaintance of Susumu brings back memories and feelings long buried.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Letters and Love

**Author's Note:**

> First Publishing: April 2012. All copyrights apply to the appropriate parties and no profit is being made from this fanwork.

**Part 5: Of Letters and Love**

_Year: Late Summer 1865_

 

“Oh? What is this?”

The curious farmer picked up the innocuous-looking piece of paper that had looked like it had initially been folded quite carefully, but since it was lying on the side of the road, trampled and soggy-looking, it no longer looked that way. The person to whom the letter had been addressed to was quite smudged and hard to make out. The farmer was by no means a nosy man, but since the letter had not been delivered, it was a sad waste of paper to be just tossed when he could soak it in a bath that would bleed out what was written and reuse the sheet to teach his children how to identify their numbers so that they could help him during market days.

He opened the half-dried letter and saw that most, if not all of it was quite smeared and unreadable, but what he could make out widened his eyes considerably. “Oh my,” he said, starting to feel even more hot than he did with the sun beating down upon his face. _The wife cannot see this_ , he thought to himself. _I’d get more than an earful from her_ …

He quickly pocketed the letter and continued on his way, resolving to douse it in the nearest river or stream he could find before he returned to his home. Some embarrassing things were just not meant to be read by others, especially this type of letter that was from one paramour to another.

* * *

“Writing yet another letter again, Mayuka-chan?”

“Yes, okaasan,” she said, smiling up at her mother who had passed by her room on the way to do something. She missed the shaking of the woman’s head as she looked back down and daintily took the brush in her hand and daubed it in the dark ink. This time, perhaps _he_ would answer her letter.

“He never replies, Mayuka-chan,” her mother said, as she looked back up to see her tired and worn face frowning in disapproval at her. “Why do you keep on writing letters to him? You should forget about him and look for another man. Father has told me that there are many nice men around the training halls...perhaps one from the Shinchougumi? Besides, he’s shinobi and they have no future except death. Perhaps though, instead of the Shinchougumi, you should find yourself a nice man from a high-born _samurai_ family--”

“Okaasan!” she sharply said, huffing as she slapped one hand on her thigh in frustration. “I don’t want anyone else! I want _him_!”

“You’re nearly eighteen now, Mayuka-chan,” her mother said in an admonishing tone. “Your father and I have allowed you to indulge on your whims for a long time, but we are getting impatient. If he does not return your affections by the time you turn eighteen, we will find you a suitable husband.”

“He will,” she replied, determined. “I will ask him in this letter.”

She saw her mother close her eyes for a moment before giving a very large sigh. “Mayuka-chan,” her mother began, this time in a defeated tone, “Your father and I discussed this, and instead of writing more letters, why not just go and ask him? Your father is willing to travel to Kyoto with you, if you want to go.”

“Really?” she asked, dropping the brush back down onto the table as she jumped up in surprise. Her mother tiredly nodded and she quickly closed the distance and joyfully hugged her. “Thank you!”

She felt her mother’s arms close around her as her mother whispered into her ear, saying, “I’ll let your father know tonight. You’d better start packing.”

* * *

Kyoto was alive with the hustle and bustle of people entering the city for the various smaller festivals and celebrations leading up to the Gion Festival. Kai leaned against the cool wall of an alleyway and as he took in the amount of people milling about in the adjacent street, he could not believe that it had already been nearly a year since he and his fellow shinobi had been sent here. Sweat glistened off of his forehead, but the cool wall helped alleviate the heat of a late summer.

He smiled to himself as he watched young children drag their parents from stall to stall, wanting them to buy things and wanting to try the food. The stream of conversations passed by his ears like the wind, but his trained mind could pick out distinct accents between each speaker. There were quite a few people from the north down here for the festivals, but most of those here were from the region. Kai had heard more than a few Osaka-accented people around here, but no one that was worth noting.

“…wondering where I can find a Yamazaki Susumu-san?”

His eyes automatically locked onto the person who had said his friend and fellow shinobi’s name and saw that it was a middle-aged looking man asking one of the shop keepers. Standing near the man and leaning slightly in as if to listen to the conversation was a young woman who looked no older than about seventeen summers, wearing a bright and colorful summer kimono.

There was something familiar about the young woman, but he couldn’t quite place it and as discreetly as possibly, he stepped out of the alleyway and headed towards the stall next to where the father and daughter pair was. He stopped near the vendor and started to examine the vendor’s wares while listening in as carefully as he could.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I have never heard of anyone named Yamazaki,” the vendor said.

“Thank you for your time then,” the father said before both he and his daughter stepped away from the vendor.

“There’s so many people here, otousan,” the young woman said, looking around in both awe and in desperation. “How are we going to find him?”

“We will, Mayuka-chan,” the father replied. “ _Someone_ in this city will know where he is.”

As the father and daughter continued down the crowded street, Kai considered to follow them, but thought better of it. He could sense no ill intent from either person, but it was curious that they were looking specifically for Susumu and that they knew that he was here in Kyoto. However, he was well aware that even those with no ill intent could be used as pawns by those with ill intent and so he slipped back into the crowds and made his way back to the Shinsengumi base.

There was no need to raise the alarm just yet, not until he could alert his friend himself and see if the young shinobi did know who exactly the young woman and her father were.

* * *

“All done!”

Tetsu dusted off his hands as he stepped back from the shed and closed the door before swinging the wooden latch over the handles to lock it so that if the pigs happened to get out of their pen, they would not raid this particular shed. He turned and happily walked away – all of his assigned chores were done and with an extremely rare blessing from the vice-commander before hand that he had the rest of the day off to do whatever he wanted to do after all the work was complete. The sun was starting to set and he had heard more than a few people outside of the compound going towards the inner part of Kyoto to enjoy the various smaller festivals leading up to the Gion Festival. It was an opportune time for him to go into the city and perhaps see if Saya was free tonight so he could take her around and they could enjoy the festivals together.

He turned the corner and saw Okita sitting on the walkway with his feet hanging over the edge, reading a book. A stack of books was sitting next to him and there seemed to be a strange mixture of a humorous yet serious look on the First Unit Captain’s face as the pages were flipped in the book he was currently holding. Curious, he called out, “Okita-san! What’cha reading?”

“Ah, Tetsu-kun,” Okita said, looking up and placing the book down, giving him a sunny smile. “I see you are all done with your work?”

“Yep!” he said, approaching and stopping before him. “Hijikata-san gave me the rest of the day off.”

There was a surprised look on Okita’s face before he said, “Wow…he must be in an awfully good mood. So then, what do you plan to do tonight?”

“I’m going to see if Saya has the night off,” he said, grinning. “Hopefully she does and then we can enjoy the festivals together.”

“Ah,” Okita said, “well, good luck with that and I am sure that even if she does not have the night off, she will appreciate you visiting her.”

“Thanks!” he said, though before he could leave, there was an interruption in the form of a sing-song voice.

“Matsumoto-san!” he heard the familiar voice of Toudou Heisuke call out from behind him and saw him breeze past and head towards the tree next to the pond where he had thought there had been no one sitting at the base, but there actually was. Aya had been sitting so still and dressed in dark clothes that almost blended in with the color of the tree bark that Tetsu had not initially seen her until Toudou called out her name and caused her to look up when her name was called. He found it extremely odd that she was dressed in dark colors when most other women around the city were dressed bright, festive colors. Even before Ayumu had killed, he remembered that she had dressed in bright colors. He also noticed that she also had a book in her hands and to his eyes, she did not look very happy to be interrupted from it.

“Yes?” she curtly asked as Toudou stopped in front of her.

“Want to go and enjoy the festivals together?”

Tetsu could barely contain his laughter at the sudden wide-eyed, surprised expression on the normally somber-looking shinobi as he heard her flatly say, “What?” It was just too funny and he even heard Okita chuckle.

“I’m good company and I’m sure that you’ll love it,” Toudou continued to press.

Tetsu watched as Aya recovered from the shock and schooled her expression back to a serious look as she stood up and gave a small bow of deference to Toudou, and formally said, “I apologize, Toudou-san, but Shimada-san has returned from his patrol and it seems that he has some news. I may have to work tonight, so I hope you will still enjoy the festivals without my presence there.”

With that statement, Aya indicated with a slight nod of her head towards where Tetsu and Okita were and Tetsu turned to see that indeed, Kai had returned and he looked to be hurrying further into the compound, towards where the sleeping quarters were, most likely to find Hijikata. He turned back around to see Aya approaching with the book in her hand. She carefully placed it in the pile next to Okita and said to the First Unit Captain, “Thank you for letting me borrow and read this.”

“You are welcome,” Okita replied as Aya gave both him and Tetsu a nod before leaving.

“Oy,” Toudou spoke up as he walked up to them, scratching the back of his head, as soon as Aya left, causing Tetsu to turn around. “Enjoying a festival without a beautiful woman by your side is not the same.” The older man sighed before brushing the sudden melancholy off and said, “Tetsu, you going to Shimabara to see if Saya is free tonight?”

“Yeah,” he answered, grinning.

“All right, I’m coming with you. Maybe one of the others is free too,” Toudou said before turning to Okita and asked, “Want to come with us?”

The First Unit Captain shook his head no as he smiled and patted the stack of books sitting next to him, saying, “I am fine staying here and reading. Thank you for all of your hard work, both of you. Please go and enjoy yourselves.”

“What are you reading anyways, Okita-san?” Tetsu asked, as Toudou shrugged and departed. He remembered that it was because of his initial curiosity that had caused him to delay his departure for Shimabara and now was as good of any time to get his answer before he forgot about it.

“Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” Okita answered, holding up the book in his hands for him to see. He saw that it was the fifth volume and the stack looked like it had at least twelve books. “It’s both a legend and folk tale. There are thirteen* volumes and it was originally brought over from China and translated.”

“So what’s it about then?” he asked, his curiosity piqued. All the books he had ever read, even when Tatsu was teaching him had been purely Japanese folk tales and or stuff relevant to what he needed to memorize and learn. This was the first time he had ever heard of the series of books and of the story and was surprised to hear that it had came originally from China.

“It is a very long story and requires a long explanation, Tetsu-kun,” Okita said, smiling as he placed the volume down on his lap. “I will tell you about it later so you will not miss seeing Saya-chan, okay?”

“Okay!” he said and happily left.

 

_*I’m not sure how many volumes there are…it’s also dependent on book thickness._

 

_A few minutes later…_

 

“They have already left,” Okita said out loud as he sensed a familiar presence lurking in the shadow of the corner of the building where he was currently sitting on the walkway. The volume that he was currently reading had been reopened to the page he had left off at but he turned a bit and looked up as he saw her approach and silently pick up the volume from the stack that she had been reading before she had been interrupted. Glancing beyond her, he also noticed that two particular people, one disguised as an eerily familiar face and the other looking as he had when he had just returned, departing the compound and asked, “The message that Shimada-san brought back was not urgent then?”

“No, it wasn’t. It was for Susumu.”

“It was a good timing then, on Shimada-san’s part that he arrived when he arrived. You evaded that one, though you could have just said ‘no’.”

“Toudou-san would have wanted an explanation.”

He was silent for a very long moment as he looked away, remembering certain tragic events that had happened in the past, then looked back and said, “Do you still not like festivals?”

“I’ve always hated them since that day.”

* * *

_Nakamura Mayuka_ , he thought to himself as he walked along the crowded streets as normally as his deceased sister would have during this time of the year. Kai was walking next to him, acting as if he were either an escort or a protector, as it was quite uncommon for a single woman to be about the city during the festivals. It would have been easier had Aya been walking next to him as it would have made blending in and having to potentially explain the presence of another person with him a lot simpler, but Kai was the one who knew and had the information.

_I wonder why she’s here_ , he continued to think as he automatically smiled and nodded to the gibberish Kai was saying as a part of both of their covers.

He had not ever wanted to dress up like his sister ever again after capturing the traitor Furutaka Shuntaro, but for the sake of this particular incident, he felt that it would be the most appropriate. Though his sister had been dead for nearly a year now, he found that he still missed her, and though he had not heard much into the investigation as to how her identity had been so easily compromised, at least Kai and Aya had not asked him too many questions since their initial arrival and preliminary investigation.

“Susumu,” Kai whispered to him, causing him to break out of his depressing thoughts and glance towards the taller shinobi. “They’re there.” Kai discreetly held up a hand and seemed to point towards a beautifully crafted lantern hanging just a few stalls down from where they were, but Susumu had followed the hand and saw two faintly familiar-looking people.

While Mayuka’s father looked to have aged quite a bit since Susumu had last seen him, the same could not be said of Mayuka. The girl—no, young woman—he mentally corrected himself, had grown to be quite lovely and it did not escape his notice that more than a few men in the vicinity of her had turned to stare at her. However, she seemed to be oblivious to the heads she was turning as she listened to her father ask a stall vendor some questions.

“I’ll be at the next stall over,” Kai whispered, leaving him right in front of a paper and cloth fan stall, looking at the items. “Signal if you need help.”

He gave a barely perceptible nod and just as Kai left, he glanced over to see that both Mayuka and her father were done asking their questions and were walking towards him. He deliberately turned so that he was visible to them, while picking up a red cloth fan with small golden and silver flower decorations drawn all over it.

“Oh! Pardon me,” he heard Mayuka say as she approached him. “But are you Yamazaki Ayumu-san?”

In disguise, Susumu affected a surprised tone, remembering just how his sister used to address Mayuka, as he answered, “Oh my, Mayuka-chan?”

“It is you, Ayumu-san!” the young woman happily answered as her father approached.

“Ah, Yamazaki-san,” Mayuka’s father said, “So good to see you again!”

“Nakamura-san,” he answered in his sister’s voice, bowing a bit in greeting and in deference. “How lovely to see both of you again. You look well, Nakamura-san and you’ve grown far prettier than before, Mayuka-chan.”

Susumu saw Mayuka blush at the statement before giving him a beaming smile and giggled. “I have you to thank you for teaching me all of those things, Ayumu-san,” the young woman said.

“Pardon me, but I am curious, have the festivals brought you, Nakamura-san and Mayuka-chan to Kyoto? If yes, where is your lovely wife? I would love to see her again too.”

Mayuka’s father gave a nervous laughter as he scratched the back of his head and said, “I’ll admit, I’ve always wanted to come to Kyoto, but my duties as a scribe have kept me from traveling so much. My wife is still in Edo, and it is only for Mayuka that we have traveled here.”

“Oh?” he asked, definitely taking an interest now in where the conversation was going. Being the only child and daughter of one of the scribes who worked with the Shogun’s vassals that lived in Edo, Mayuka lived a privileged life, but would never be able to inherit her father’s work. In her childhood, she had also found the work her father did boring and thus had spent a lot of her free time hanging out with many of the shinobi who patrolled Edo Castle’s grounds. That was how she, Susumu, and Ayumu had met and gotten acquainted. Though she had hung out with him and his sister, she had not acquired any secret shinobi knowledge, though Susumu was no fool to understand that perhaps some stranger had interpreted it differently. If they had recruited Mayuka as an undercover agent and she had been sent to Kyoto, he could only imagine what threats had been leveled onto Mayuka’s parents and their tenuous position. Blackmail was most likely the culprit, but Susumu halted his thoughts before they could go any further. He needed to find out the truth first.

“Um,” Mayuka began, looking nervously around. “May we talk where there are less people around? It’s a bit embarrassing for me…and…”

“Why not?” he said, remembering that his sister would kindly do that, even for a childhood acquaintance. He placed the fan he had been examining back into the stand it had come from and gestured for Mayuka and her father to follow her to the nearest alleyway. He could sense Kai looking up and wondering where they were going but he made a discreet hand signal for him to stay where he was. There was no need to reveal Kai’s presence just yet.

“Is this good?” he asked in a kindly tone, though where he had stopped was still close to the main streets, but quiet enough so that there was a semblance of privacy. His nerves were on edge, and he was alert for any sort of foul movement from the young woman or her father, but he still had to continue to pretend that he was his sister. However, there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that this was most definitely not an ambush of sorts and was probably about something entirely more personal. He took a moment to mentally brace himself and waited.

“Yes,” the young woman said, bobbing her head up and down. “Ayumu-san, I’m looking for your brother. I have something to confess to him.”

* * *

_Eh? What’s Susumu doing out here, dressed up like Ayu-nee? I thought he told me that he would never dress up like her ever again_ …Tetsu thought to himself as he spotted a familiar-looking person dressed in an equally-familiar-looking blue summer kimono near a fan vendor. The person disappeared into an alleyway and was followed by a middle-aged looking man and a young woman.

He felt a tug on the sleeve of his summer yukata as Saya picked up his hand and faced it palm up. She wrote her question: _Are you all right_?

“Yeah,” he answered, “I just saw one of my friends and he looked a bit strange. I don’t like doing this to you, and it really sucks, but I’d like to find out what’s wrong with him. Do you mind if I talk to him for about five minutes?”

He saw Saya shake her head as she gave him a sunny smile before taking the hand she had ghost-written her question on and placed it on her cheek. It was her way of saying that she wanted him to be worry-free so that they could spend the rest of their night together enjoying the festival. She then pointed to the stall of small hair clips and other trinkets, indicating that she would be waiting for him there.

“I’ll be back soon, then,” he said, hurrying off to where he had last seen Susumu. However, before he could approach the alleyway, a rather tall man stepped out before him and blocked his path. “Hey! What’s the big deal—“

“Ah, puppy-boy,” Kai said, as Tetsu looked up to see the shinobi look down at him while shaking his head. “I can’t let you near Susumu right now. He’s doing some work.”

“Work?” he asked, curious and tried to look beyond the big man but Kai countered his every move by stepping to the side he was trying to look from.

“But, since you’re his friend, and since the work is probably not dangerous, I’ll allow you to listen in, but no more,” the shinobi said. “If I’m right, I think he may need a friend to talk to after this is over.”

“Is he all right?” he asked, eyes widening in concern. How was the work related to what Susumu would want to possibly talk about afterwards? His friend rarely talked about anything he did in terms of ‘work’ and it was only through the general briefings that the vice-commander gave that he ever learned what Susumu and the other shinobi had brought back in terms of information.

“He is,” Kai answered, guiding him to the vendor who was selling paper and cloth fans. “Here, just follow me and you can listen in.”

He nodded and though Kai was pretending to examine the fans, he, Tetsu, was standing off to the side, straining to listen to the quiet conversation that Susumu was having between the middle-aged man and the young woman.

“ _Ayumu-san, I’m looking for your brother. I have something to confess to him.”_

“ _I am terribly sorry, Mayuka-chan, but Susumu was killed during an assignment about a year ago.”_

“ _What?”_

“ _We are sorry for your loss then, Yamazaki-san.”_

“ _C-can you tell me at least where he is buried then? I would like to pay my respects and leave a letter for him.”_

“ _I apologize, but I cannot tell you where my brother is buried. It is because of the nature of how he was killed and the killers that still roam free that I cannot tell you for the fear of them targeting you for knowing such information. For my brother’s memory, I will not put either of you in harm’s way. However, if you would permit me, I will take the letter to his grave and read it to him.”_

“ _Then please, do so. When you do read the letter, please also tell him that I will always love him and will see him again in Enma.”_

“ _I will, Mayuka-chan, I will.”_

“ _We apologize for the intrusion and thank you for letting us know. Had the circumstances been better, perhaps...”_

“ _There is no need to say it, Nakamura-san. Thank you for your kindness. Please have a safe trip back to Edo.”_

“Don’t,” Kai sharply said as Tetsu felt himself being tugged back from approaching the three in the alleyway. The sight of the young woman freely crying compared to the neutral but slightly saddened look on Susumu’s disguised face was heart wrenching. It also angered him, but that anger was directed at Susumu and he wanted to throttle the shinobi into the wall for lying to the young woman.

“But!” he started, and then squirmed a bit as he was roughly guided away from the fan vendor and back out into the streets.

“Ichimura-san,” Kai began formally, turning him around to face the big man. “Let it be. You should enjoy your night with your girlfriend. Isn’t that the reason why you asked for her to be given the night off?”

“Yeah,” he said, agreeing with Kai. “But why did Susumu—“

“Don’t worry about Susumu, Tetsu-kun. You’re neglecting your girlfriend when you should be with her. Go to her and enjoy the night.”

Seeing that Kai was most likely not going to let him through, he reluctantly nodded, and resolved to speak with Susumu when he returned to the Shinsengumi headquarters later that night or in the morning. He just did not understand why his friend would say such lies and hurt a woman who clearly loved him. As he ran back to Saya, he vowed to never say such hurtful words to her.

* * *

_A few hours later…_

 

The unmistakable stomp of footsteps on the walkway was a familiar sound to Susumu, for there was only one person who would ever walk like that. He pushed the book stand back and got up, but before he could take a step towards the partition that separated his room from the outer walkway, it was swiped open and he had a sudden feeling of surreal-ness that harkened back to over a year ago – Tetsu had opened the door the same way to yell at him for not initially taking action to go to Ayumu’s aid.

The same glare was on Tetsu’s face as he gave him an equal stare back, undaunted by the anger that was behind his friend’s eyes. He knew exactly why Tetsu was here, and this time, he had no intention of explaining his actions. Earlier in the night, he had been well aware that Kai had allowed Tetsu to listen in and thought he was thoroughly annoyed that it happened; he decided not to mention it to the older shinobi. His only consolation was the fact that Kai had not attempted to speak to him about what had happened and he was glad that the shinobi had at least the decency to not butt into his own private life with unwanted advice.

“She _loved_ you, Susumu!” Tetsu said without any preamble. “How could you do that to her? How could you be so cruel?”

He remained silent and continued to dispassionately stare at Tetsu and after a few minutes, instead of slugging him as he expected his friend to do like he did a year ago, Tetsu turned and took a step away. While the action briefly surprised him, it was his friend’s words that stunned him even more as Tetsu said in a low whisper, “We may be winning, but you always have to have someone to fight for, Susumu. Otherwise, you’ll die a cold, lonely death.”

Minutes passed in silence as he heard Tetsu’s steps slowly fade away, but he remained standing where he was before a warm summer breeze blew into his room and snapped him out of his fugue. For an immature, bratty kid, those words that had emerged from his friend’s mouth were something that he had not expected, not by a very long shot. What had happened to cause Tetsu to speak like that? Had the mute girlfriend of his, Saya, finally gotten through to him?

He shook his head slightly, walked over to close the partition, and walked back to where the book stand was, sitting back down. Instead of a book on the stand, there was a letter covered in elegant handwriting opened in full and spread out of the stand. A familiar light, floral scent to the letter accompanied the paper – it was the same scent he had smelled on Mayuka earlier in the night. He looked at the letter again, this time reading from the beginning:

 

_My dear Susumu,_

_I hope this letter reaches you, for this will be my final one that I will be writing to you. I wanted to let you know that since you and your sister left for Kyoto, I have not stopped thinking about you. I know it is selfish of me, and even though you have not ever written back to me, I wanted to say that I love you. Even if you do not reply or return my affections, please understand that I will continue to love you, even if you choose to continue your life with another woman. You showed me a world different from mine and I wanted to thank you for letting me see it, even though I had disturbed many of your practice sessions, and I apologize. I hope you are safe and I hope that one day, I may meet you again. I love you, Susumu, now and forever._

_Mayuka_

 

He sighed and folded the piece of paper back up and held a corner of it over the candle, allowing it to burn. All of those times where he had been training with other shinobi-in-training or alone with his sister while in Edo, he had noticed that Mayuka had been watching. Back then, he had thought it was because of her fascination with a side of life she had never seen before that she had stayed to watch, but now…

“It’s for your own protection and good, Mayuka,” he whispered as he watched the letter slowly turn to ash and fall to the tatami-covered floor, “that you forget about me and live your life in full without me. Tetsu is right…there’s no sense in living if you don’t have anyone to fight for. I already lost my sister…but in order for me to do my job and protect the others I care about, I have to forget about you and you have to forget about me. That’s the only way.”

 

~*~*~*~


End file.
